July 9, 2018(updated April 25, 2020)Integrated Tests Are a ScamComments

Programmers cling to integrated tests in part because of a feeling of security. I consider this a false sense of security, but it only seems fair to answer the common question of how I keep contract tests and collaboration tests aligned.

Every year I work with programmers who overcomplicate dependency injection. This causes stress and it influences other programmers to not even try this technique at all. I’d like to put your mind at ease with some advice to keep things simple.

I’ve been teaching programmers about the value of isolated tests for a long time, and recently I’ve seen increasing resistance to the idea. I worry that this comes partly from having presented motivations and reasons that tends towards the overly-abstract, ironically enough. Perhaps I can improve matters by returning to the concrete issues and constraints that led me to being exploring this idea in the first place.